Monday, January 21, 2013

My Living Space

I stopped by our Tax Guy last week. On our IRS forms my job listing is called a
"Homemaker." I sort of blanched at the title. I'm use to mentally calling myself "a stay at home mother." Homemaker sounds so patsy 1950s and not descriptive of me at all. I'm no Martha Stewart!

Yet, I started talking about this with my husband Jon. I'm going to try out that new label mentally this week. I am a "home maker." My family has a home because I'm often here in it.

I'm amazed that there are things to do inside my home. When I grew up, when I wanted to have fun, it was always outside my house. I went away to school. I went away for volunteer opportunities. I went away for parties, and dances, and music lessons. Home was a little impersonal. Like a bunk house. Home was where I slept, ate some meals, and did my homework. All the fun stuff, and the deep stuff, and the interesting stuff happened outside my house.

Now that I'm Catholic--it's like home is a fun place to be. Home is a destination. Home has all of these little nooks and crannies filled with activities that we love, and plants, and pets. Home is "us." And we are fun! Now when we leave to go to 4-H or Cub Scouts or play dates--it's a nice feeling to say "Oh, we've had so much fun but now we get to go home and have more fun!"

What is a Third Order Carmelite?

A Third Order Discalced Carmelite is a person who responds to an invitation from God to live a life of contemplative prayer within the modern world.

Prayer to Saint Teresa of Avila

Teach us to pray with you with all our hearts:

"I am yours Lord.

I was born for you.

What do you want of me?"

My No Comment Policy

I love silence. I love calmness. I like to avoid all inter-comment box drama. If one of my posts touched your heart, I'm happy to respond to you in an one-on-one manner. I answer all emails sent to abigail.b.benjamin@gmail.com.